Meet the Representative
Find out more about the UNICEF Representative in Zambia, Ms. Noala Skinner.
Noala Skinner is the UNICEF Representative to the Republic of Zambia, based in Lusaka. She took up her post in July 2017. She leads a team working on a broad range of programmes in support of the rights and well-being of children and young people under the UNICEF Country Programme of Cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Zambia.
Prior to her appointment as UNICEF Representative to Zambia, Ms. Skinner served as Director of UNICEF’s Partnership Office for Relations with the European Union Institutions, based in Brussels. She also served for four years as UNICEF Representative to Rwanda (2011-2015) and as UNICEF’s first Representative to Montenegro (2007-2011).
From 2000-2007 Ms. Skinner’s work with UNICEF was in the education sector, with assignments in Kosovo, New York headquarters and Vietnam, where she served as Chief of Education.
Ms. Skinner joined UNICEF as a consultant in Geneva in 1998, where she liaised with UNICEF National Committees on advocacy and social mobilisation in support of basic education, and in the Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia where she provided technical assistance on humanitarian and development programming, HIV and AIDS and human security.
Prior to joining UNICEF, from 1994-1998 Ms. Skinner was based at the Centre for History and Economics, King’s College, University of Cambridge, where she worked as a Research Associate with the Common Security Forum.
Ms. Skinner is a national of the United Kingdom. In 1993, she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Queens' College, University of Cambridge. In 1994, she obtained her Master’s degree in Diplomacy and International Relations from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. She is married and has two sons.
Previous UNICEF Representatives in Zambia:
Dr. Hamid El Bashir Ibrahim, 2014-2017
Dr. Iyorlumun J. Uhaa, 2010-2014
Ms. Lotta Sylwander, 2006-2010
Mr. Juan Aguillar (ad interim), 2005-2006
Dr. Stella Goings, 2001-2005
Dr. Peter McDermott, 1998-2000